Ruchi Mendiratta Khanna

Ruchi Mendiratta Khanna – ruchimk@bu.edu

Ruchi is a doctoral student in special education at Boston University in the Wheelock School of Education and Human Development. As part of the TEAMS project at BU, she is involved in interdisciplinary work to identify, support, and advance equity in school student mental health and well-being. Before this, Ruchi was a special education teacher and Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) for over a decade in public schools in Massachusetts. Ruchi grew up in India and moved to the US with a young family. Her education, training, and experience as an immigrant parent influenced her interest in education equity. One of her research interests is building positive school environments through teacher preparation, allowing educators to reflect on systemic inequalities and help develop their cultural competencies. She is also interested in studying how home-school partnerships can help build school connectedness for BIPOC students, which in turn supports positive mental health outcomes for students.